Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC presents: “Beauty at Work: the Role Beauty Plays in our Lives and in the Work We Do” The Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC will host Brandon Vaidyanathan, Ph.D., on Thursday, April 4 for a presentation titled "Beauty at Work: the role Beauty Plays in our Lives and Cultures.”

Moderated by Jason Blakely & Leigh Tost

Join Davor Antonucci (Sapienza University of Rome) for In The Footsteps of Marco Polo: the image of China in the West from antiquity to the 17th century. Reception to follow!

Moderated by David Albertson & Fr. Luke Dysinger

How should human beings relate to AI? How does the increasing presence of AI change how we relate to each other? Join us for a conversation at the intersection of religion, ethics, and the tech industry as we explore these questions.

Moderated by Paul Contino & Leigh Tost

What is human flourishing? What insights might we draw from the humanities? What insights might we draw from the empirical sciences? The empirical literature from the most rigorous studies is reviewed in attempt to identify major determinants of, and resources for, human flourishing. Special attention will be given to the role of religious communities in the promotion of flourishing. Discussion will be given to the implications of a broader conception of human flourishing for personal well-being, for research, and for policy. 

What does it mean that my flesh was born into the world? What would its re-birth entail? The turn to the body after Nietzsche not only foregrounds the finitude of the flesh, but clears the way for a new phenomenology of resurrection. This seminar for faculty and graduate students will study selections from Emmanuel Falque’s The Metamorphosis of Finitude: An Essay on Birth and Resurrection (2004).

Do we all share reason in common? What happens to “natural” reason after the death of God? Thomas Aquinas’s approach to the “Gentiles” (non-Christians) in his century can help us trace the border of metaphysics and theology today. This public lecture is open to all USC students, faculty, and staff.

Join the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC for a lecture featuring Leo Guardado, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Theology at Fordham University, who will assess the past fifty years of Gustavo Gutiérrez’ theological contributions, the global impact and reception of a commitment to doing theology from the perspective of the poor and insignificant, and the ongoing challenges liberation theology presents for a global Catholic Church.

Guardado is the inaugural DePaul Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Catholic Studies at USC.

Moderated by David Albertson & Jason Blakely with Guest Scholar, Angela Franks.

Are we simply the story we make about ourselves? Or the firing of our neurons? Learn what identity means, what neuroscience says about our memories, and how ancient Christianity has a robust response.

The Collegium Institute and Dappled Things welcome you to join us for this online panel featuring four artists, working across four different mediums: Kara Patrowicz, fiber artist, Daniel Mitsui, illustrator, Matilde Olivera, sculptor, and Caleb Kortokrax, painter.

Moderated by Stefano Rebeggiani & Fr. Luke Dysinger

Moderated by Stefano Rebeggiani & Paul Contino

Come and join us for Poetry at the Beach! Enjoy a day with fellow students and a discussion led by Prof. Paul Contino and Prof. Jason Blakely over brunch in Malibu.

Building on his recent book, With the World at Heart: Studies in the Secular Today (University of Chicago Press, 2019), this seminar with Thomas A. Carlson will explore how Martin Heidegger’s well-known concern that modern technology threatens distinctively human modes of dwelling in the world is indebted to the lesser known but fundamental role that love plays in his philosophy.

Moderator: Prof. Jason Blakely

Text: John Paul II, Theology of the Body

Moderator: Prof. David Albertson

Text: John Paul II, Man and Woman He Created Them: The Theology of the Body

The Saint Paul’s Choir of Men and Boys sing Palestrina’s glorious and beloved music, composed around 1562, within a contemporary Mass for the feast day of Saints Cyril and Methodius.  In the lecture and discussion preceding the Mass, Prof. John Baldovin, S.J. and James Kennerly, FRCO, examine the evolution of the Eucharistic worship before the Council of Trent (1545-63), the Council’s teachings on the Eucharist and its debates on the role of music in liturgy, the musical characteristics of Palestrina’s groundbreaking composition, and the way to integrate this music into contemporary Catholic worship.

Silence is Martin Scorsese's 2016 adaptation of the novel by Shusaku Endo.  In seventeenth-century Japan, two Jesuit priests are sent to find their lost mentor, who has allegedly been apostatized.  Silence is a meditation on faith, prayer, and conversion in the bleakest of conditions.

At present, the commercial appeal of automated legal systems rests on three pillars: speed, scale, and preference satisfaction. However, for many parts of the U.S. legal system, there is common sense that their translation into computation would be inappropriate. Come listen to an urgent reflection on the language and distinctions necessary to weigh commercial versus legal interests in the age of AI.

Moderator: Prof. Stefano Rebeggiani

Text: Carrie Frederick Frost, Maternal Body: A Theology of Incarnation from the Christian East [book]; “Pro-Life Liturgy,” from First Things

If you've ever thought that faith and science are in conflict, come listen to Professor Christopher Baglow sort out a variety of misconceptions, including the apparent antagonisms of creation and evolution, and Sacred Scriptures and modern science.